Whiskie, a shelter dog rescued by Peggy Stap of Marine Life Studies, has uncanny ability to spot whales and dolphins which is a real asset to Peggy Stap's work in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary as a marine mammal researcher.
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"It is convincingly disguised as a weekend of fun and frivolity, but Whalefest Monterey, in its fourth year, is really a tricky way to convince the rest of us to care a little bit more about our planet," says Dennis Taylor, Herald Staff Writer. Read all about it, including quotes from Marine Life Studies volunteer Ocean Stewards.
Peggy Stap describes her first encounter with whales in the wild as “love at first sight.” The Michigan native was visiting Maui and said seeing humpback whales was a life-changing experience. “I was 41 at the time and I went home and told my husband that I wanted to move to Maui and do research on whales,” Stap said. The couple owned some wholesale greenhouses and a landscaping company, so it was pretty hard to just pick up and move to Hawaii.
In case you haven’t noticed there has been a LOT of action in the ocean lately. We’re not talking surfers ripping the top off waves we’re talking about thousands upon thousands of birds, seals, whales, among countless other ocean creatures. It has been quite the sight to say the least. When we got the news that we’d be joining Peggy and Sarah with Marine Life Studies to do some hands-on whale documenting our faces lit up with excitement. We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into just the fact that we would be wearing “Mustang Suits” and be driving an 18ft boston whaler.
If you read my last post you will appreciate some of the difficulties and uncertainties of cetacean research. It is far from easy! Becoming a proficient researcher depends on having, or attaining, certain attributes of character, including: patience, determination and flexibility. The researchers I know have an almost limitless patience for, and acceptance of, the sometimes daunting, trivial, impossible, stressful, hilarious, frustrating or distressing challenges they face every single day. The average person could be forgiven if they gave up, wept and decided to become a cat-herder instead. But for a researcher, cetaceans are so infused into their being, in their blood, heart and head, that they could not conceive of a life lived any other way and will always find the means to further their research, whatever the obstacles.
Can my memory stretch back that far…? Back to this April when I revisited Peggy Stap of Marine Life Studies(MLS), to assist her once again with her research in Monterey Bay, attempting to track down some enigmatic killer whales…? (Those smart and elusive animals that experienced spotters on the bay’s many whale watching boats often only find once in an azure-blue moon). |
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October 2021
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